All four Fords are contending for the championship after the first month of 2018

By
Matt Weaver

Mar 11, 2018

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Stewart-Haas Racing has won numerous races and earned two championships but it has never looked as complete or dominant as it does right now through the first four races to open the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Much of the attention will surround Kevin Harvick, and rightfully so, for winning three of the first four races to start the season. But SHR is no longer the top-heavy team with only two or three cars contending each week.

Put bluntly, the departure of Danica Patrick has made the organization better. Through four races, Aric Almirola has posted a 10th-place average finish, fourteen positions better than Patrick in six years at the highest level of the sport.

Harvick himself on his radio show, Happy Hour, said that the team has been strengthened by having four equal drivers that all contribute competitive data.

"The thing I took away from it was the No. 10 car and Aric Almirola were more competitive for us and that is important for us to have that extra set of notes that we really hadn't used the last several years because that car hasn't performed well enough," he said. "It hasn't been competitive enough to really bring anything to the table."

After a challenging first season at Stewart-Haas, Clint Bowyer has rebounded to the tune of a 10.5 average finish, also remarkably better than Tony Stewart himself at the end of his career, when the skillset or enthusiasm wasn’t quite as sharp.

So add Almirola and Bowyer, in their primes, to veteran champions Harvick and Kurt Busch and you get a Stewart-Haas Racing that looks like the class of the field.

On Sunday, the team placed all four of its car inside the top-10 for the first time in team history.

"It was an awesome day for us," Stewart said during the winner's press conference after the race. "That's probably what I'm most proud of. It's the first time in our organization's history that we had all four cars in the top 10.

"Just proud of everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing. So many people that don't get a chance to come to the track each weekend because they're working hard at the shop. I think this weekend really is a big thank you to those guys for everything they've done."

It’s worth noting that SHR is accomplishing this run of success with the oldest body in the garage, the Ford Fusion.

"Proud of everything that the Ford Motor Company has been doing for us," Stewart said. "Shows their dedication to obviously the sport and this program."

Even though Harvick has been the headliner, he has always said it was important to him that the entire organization runs well, because that data will only strengthen his car’s performance. To that end, he was proud to have his three teammates join him inside the top-10.

"To see him (Almirola) up there, I saw Clint up there, Kurt winning a stage, that's really the most important thing because that progression as a race team, when everybody ups the ante on the car, you learn something from each car and each person," Harvick added.

"The confidence in the company goes up. The evolution of things starts to happen more rapidly. Now that the No. 10 car is in that evolution, it is good for our company. Just really proud of everybody."

Ultimately, no one has been more proud than Stewart himself, who admitted a geek out moment during the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway two weeks ago.

"I admit, I thought we were going to get rained out at Atlanta, so I went home, was sitting there," Stewart said. "I took a picture of the screen when we had all four cars in the top seven.

"I took a screenshot of it as a fan. Just kept looking at it, going, this is really cool, never happened for our organization."

Now it's happening on a weekly basis.

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